Barbie beams up to the original 'Star Trek' Enterprise
As Star Trek's original five-year mission rolls toward the end of its fifth decade, media and brands are lining up to celebrate the franchise's incredible run. The latest to board the Starship Enterprise? Barbie.
The world famous doll's parent company Mattel, and CBS (which, along with Paramount Studios, owns the franchise) announced on Monday that they are set to launch a trio of new dolls to honor the sci-fi television show, as part of the Barbie Collection Series.
Star Trek ran from 1966 to 1969 and spawned multiple series (a new one launches in the fall) and more than a dozen features films (including one, Star Trek Beyond, that's set to open this summer).
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The 50th Anniversary Barbie Collection will feature Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Lieutenant Uhura.
Barbie Collections are geared at adult collectors. None of the dolls resembles Barbie or any of her adjacent characters. Back in 1996, Mattel produced a 30th anniversary Star Trek Barbie and Ken doll set. Barbie wore a red uniform like Uhura, and Ken got the captain's uniform.
But this time, Mattel went for verisimilitude. The outfits are spot-on recreations and the faces bear at least some resemblance to the original actors: Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, the late Leonard Nimoy as Spock and William Shatner as Kirk.
To get the looks right, Mattel worked closely with CBS and gathered inspiration from original video and photos.
In the Barbie Collection, Nimoy's hand is stuck in a permanent Vulcan salute. By contrast, the recently-launched Mezco Toyz's Spock doll (they also produced a Captain Kirk and Sulu) looks much more like Nimoy and offers a collection of interchangeable hands.
In the photo supplied to us by Mattel, Kirk is holding a phaser and Uhura has a tricorder and communicator. Nimoy and Kirk will also come with communicators. There are currently no extra accessories for sale, only what comes with each doll.
Sadly, the Enterprise bridge where the dolls sit in that photo is not for sale.
Notably missing from the collection are USS Enterprise helmsman Sulu (oh, my!), engineer Scotty and Dr. McCoy.
We showed the original Kirk, actor William Shatner, a photo of the new collection. He had both a positive and a negative reaction:
The Uhura doll is a beautiful sculpt. Just look at it. That should be on every girl's holiday list. Where is Dr. McCoy? You cannot split up the team.
The dolls will be available in stores and online sometime later this month, and will cost $34.99 each.
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Topics Star Trek
Lance Ulanoff was Chief Correspondent and Editor-at-Large of Mashable. Lance acted as a senior member of the editing team, with a focus on defining internal and curated opinion content. He also helped develop staff-wide alternative story-telling skills and implementation of social media tools during live events. Prior to joining Mashable in September 2011 Lance Ulanoff served as Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for the Ziff Davis, Inc. While there, he guided the brand to a 100% digital existence and oversaw content strategy for all of Ziff Davis’ Web sites. His long-running column on PCMag.com earned him a Bronze award from the ASBPE. Winmag.com, HomePC.com and PCMag.com were all been honored under Lance’s guidance.He makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Fox News, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Kelly and Michael, CNBC, CNN and the BBC.He has also offered commentary on National Public Radio and been interviewed by newspapers and radio stations around the country. Lance has been an invited guest speaker at numerous technology conferences including SXSW, Think Mobile, CEA Line Shows, Digital Life, RoboBusiness, RoboNexus, Business Foresight and Digital Media Wire’s Games and Mobile Forum.
